I came across Caitlin Moran's How to Be a Woman as an Amazon recommendation. I think it may have been due to my love for non-fiction comedic writers like Jen Lancaster and Laurie Nataro. In any case, Moran's book was on sale and I decided to giver her a chance.

I bought her book in a Kindle Edition for my trip to England, not even realizing that Moran is a British author. I really knew nothing about her prior to buying and reading this book. It was good timing though, as it themed well with my vacation.

In How to Be a Woman Moran tackles a variety of issues facing women (First bras, decision to have children, abortion, female role models, et) and has a feminist slant. Her writing is a bit hit and miss. It's not that she doesn't have a good comedic writers voice, it just feels like her book lacks originality with regard to subject matter. The subjects that she writes about have been done to death. This is not to say that these subjects are unimportant or that the dialogue should stop, but mostly Moran didn't add to the conversation.

I was left feeling like Moran is probably a unique voice in the literary world, but the subjects that she chose for this book did not showcase her talent.

This book had a few highlights, but was mostly a snooze fest.

Since it correlated with my trip, I enjoyed the bits about her life in England. I'm sure that there was plenty that I glossed over and didn't "get" with regards to cultural references.

I was pleased with myself to know that Waitrose is a grocery store chain, having just visited one in the morning and then a few hours later, reading a chapter in which she mentions it. It's always exciting when little things become part of your frame of reference.

I would definitely give Moran another shot with a different book, but I am not sure that I would recommend this one.